Gardening for Wildlife

Christmas Present Ideas for Wildlife Enthusiast – So what will Father Christmas be bring your friends this Xmas? I know what I want! Bees. I had a brief, and painful…

Spring begins to merge into Summer – As the freshness and lime green of the UK spring merges into July so the sound of wildlife changes. Here the dawn chorus is …

Orchids and Photovoltaic Systems – The cold winter and spring has indeed influenced the wildlife. Plants were still flowering later than I might have predicted for…

Wild Orchids – When the calendar shows ‘May’ wildlife enthusiasts think ‘orchids’. Certainly some will flower before this date but now is the main time to start searching.

Yucky UK Wildlife – The recent flash floods in northern Kenya, that have caused chaos in the Samburu National Park remind me of one of the possible positive …

The Importance of Wildlife Gardens – Wildlife in the UK must have been so different before human numbers started to build up in the Bronze Age.

An Insight into the less-fashionable plants – I’m as bad as the next person: I just do not see the less-fashionable plants. Be honest…

You know how it happens. Something, perhaps quite trite, just ‘gets to you’. It nags away at the very seat of one’s soul and whenever one’s guard drops…

Well another series of Autumn Watch has been and gone – and what a delight it has been yet again. We are so fortunate in that the BBC has such an effective …

Controlling the Growth of Grasses – Yellow rattle, Rhinanthus minor, is a meadow plant that everyone should know. Not that it is overly showy…

Life and Death in the Countryside. I’m sure you’ll all have similar stories to these but they reflect all our interest, and concern, in wildlife and green issues in general…

A flash of orangey-bronzy-brown was all that was needed to awake me from my quiet contemplation, and for my semi-comatose brain to register that high summer was indeed here.

We are fortunate in having at least three owl species in the local area. Occasional barn owls are seen in the garden, but our enclosed woodland edge habitat…

Well our rats are few and far between, but if one were to substitute rabbits for rats then I can quite understand the problems experienced by the dear folks of Hamelin.

The longer days and bright sunshine of middle and late March has really stimulated our local ecosystems. The frog spawn has hatched, without disturbance…

It really is great to be alive at this time of the year. The days are lengthening, so there is the stimulus of light in the morning to help me drag myself out of bed.

In recent years egrets have, quite naturally, moved into the UK. Presumably their required niche became available due to climate change or change in their population.

It’s always puzzling why we have certain wildlife in the garden and not other species. If you and I compared the birds that visit our bird tables they could well be different.

The ecology of a wildlife garden – the sun’s generous supply of energy reaches the Earth as sunlight energy, which can be employed for many useful purposes…

Much of the terrestrial life in the wildlife garden is now on ‘pause’, with comparatively little showing itself. Over-wintering butterflies…

The days of mellow wistfulness are with us now. The misty mornings, the dew hanging like small diamonds on the grass and bushes, the spiky sweet chestnut fruits …

We have just returned from a short visit to Devon. Wildlife was not our main preoccupation but we did manage to visit and view three wild flower meadows.

Butterflies – As the soils have dried out, so the summer butterflies have hatched into the sunshine. High summer treasures are around in good numbers.

Summer can be a magnificent time in the wildlife garden, but this year atmospheric and soil water has been enhanced and this can change biological systems dramatically.

Wildlife Gardening in May and June – Our main native hedge is rimmed by greater celandine, campions, dame’s violets and a motley selection of other plants.

Spring, as delightful as it might be, is a time of fluctuating weather with warm sunshine one day and cold, blustery showers the next.

Wildlife Gardening in March and April – The main attractions in the early months of the year are centred on our Spring Meadow

Here at Forest Edge our Wildlife Garden has been up and running for nearly twenty years now and we have a good deal of experience that we can share with others.